Simple Centerpiece Ideas for a Wedding That Add Beauty to the Table

These unique centerpiece ideas for a wedding will leave a lasting impression on everyone that takes part in your ceremony and reception. Every bride wants her big day to be incredibly special, and creating a unique wedding that everyone remembers fondly is the ultimate goal of most engaged couples.

One of the first decisions that a bride and groom must make together is the season in which they’d like to get married. After all, winter weddings are typically much different than spring and summer weddings, so it’s important to select the time of year that’s right for you. After the season has been narrowed down and an official wedding date has been chosen, it’s time to begin selecting wedding colors!

The wedding color palette is crucial because it must be incorporated into all aspects of the wedding such as the bridesmaid dresses, the floral arrangements, the ceremony and reception decorations, and often times the wedding cake, too! Once a color or group of colors has been chosen, you should begin thinking of ideas for your wedding reception.

wedding centerpiece idea Your wedding is supposed to be a beautiful event, not one that makes you want to rip your hair out, so you should try your best to avoid stressing out! That’s why these simple yet elegant centerpiece ideas for a wedding will come in handy.

Round reception tables are the norm at most wedding receptions, and they typically have some sort of tablecloth or table linens. Tablecloths in a basic, muted shade such as cream or light beige will work best with these centerpiece ideas for a wedding. Depending on the size of the table, six to eight place settings will most likely be present. Set a tall clear glass wine goblet in front of each plate and stuff a cloth napkin inside each so that it puffs out and looks like a flower. Use cloth napkins that are the main color of your wedding – for example, napkins that are the same color as the bridesmaid dresses. The colored napkins will add emphasis to your table, especially since you have such basic-colored tablecloths. These “floral glasses” are simple yet elegant, and they are also completely functional because they are composed of two items that need to be on the table anyway.

Place a round mirror in the middle of the table, and set a glass bowl or vase filled with a floral arrangement that includes flowers which are the same color as your napkins. For an extra bit of “oomph” you can scatter flower petals on the table as well. These simple ideas are stylish, unique, and classy, and your friends and family will be sure to remember your special day!

Pink Wedding Table Centerpiece Ideas

Flowers and candles have always been popular wedding table centerpiece ideas, but if you can’t make up your mind between the two there’s no reason you can’t have both! There are countless ways of combining floral arrangements and candles into stunning wedding centerpieces, and with a little thought and little effort you can create some of the prettiest wedding reception table decorations that you’ve ever seen. In fact, the blushing bride may wind up sharing the spotlight with her reception centerpieces on the big day!

Pink has always been a fashionable wedding color because it’s so romantic. Pastel shades of pink symbolize youthfulness and innocence while bright pinks and hot pinks give off a trendy, up-to-the-minute vibe. Whichever shade of pink you prefer, including pink flowers in your wedding centerpieces shouldn’t be a problem because there are so many pink flowers to choose from! Dahlias, pansies, daisies, gladiolas, lilies, and peonies are just a few… and let’s not forget the all-time wedding favorite, roses!

Your wedding florist should be able to help you choose the perfect combination of flowers and greenery for your centerpieces, and you’re going to need some clear glass vases in which to display the floral arrangements. Square or rectangular-shaped vases are great wedding table centerpiece ideas! Place the pink floral arrangements in the center of your reception tables. wedding centerpiece idea Set them on top of round mirrors in order to create a bit of shine.

Now it’s time to throw some candles into the mix. You can find tea light candles and small glass candleholders at just about any discount store in town, and they’re relatively inexpensive. Place two candles on top of the mirror beside your pink floral arrangement. White candles will add a bit of contrast to all of the pink, but pastel pink candles will work as well – it’s up to you!

Providing guests with wedding favors to take home with them is a tradition that most brides enjoy, and incorporating the color pink into these little gifts can also help you think of wedding table centerpiece ideas. Place small candies, such as mints, Jordan almonds, or M&Ms into individual pink pouches or bags. You can tie them with pink ribbons and attach a small tag that includes the bride and groom’s name and wedding date. Place one of these pink wedding favors in front of each place setting in order to add even more pink to the reception table.

The use of pink floral arrangements, small tea light candles, and pink wedding favors is an easy way to incorporate the color pink into your wedding table centerpieces. Whether you follow these plans exactly or tweak them to make them your own, you’ll be sure to have attractive reception tables!

Outdoor Wedding Reception Centerpiece Ideas

Whether it’s at the beach or in your own backyard, our wedding reception centerpiece ideas will come in handy as you plan your outdoor wedding. Outdoor weddings usually take a bit more planning and effort than indoor weddings because of their location, but your reception centerpieces don’t have to be difficult to make! Even if you decide to hold your reception indoors once the wedding ceremony is over, you can give your wedding centerpieces an outdoorsy feel that goes along with the overall theme of your special day.

Weddings held on white sandy beaches automatically have a tropical feel to them, and using seashells and palm branches as table decorations are wonderful wedding reception centerpiece ideas. Place a few pieces of palm on the center of each table, beach wedding centerpiece and set a large conch shell on top. You can then scatter a variety of smaller seashells around the large shell. Surround your tropical creation with white candles in clear glass jars that have been wrapped with strands of twine. This is an easy centerpiece that can go along with a tropical beach wedding or simply add a tropical vibe to a wedding held in your own backyard.

Speaking of which, backyard weddings are growing in popularity as more and more people decide to scale down and save money by holding inexpensive weddings and receptions at home. Patio tables and picnic tables are a great place to eat dinner and socialize during a wedding reception, and you can easily decorate them with great centerpieces. Small metal buckets full of wild flowers may be all that you need, but if you’d like to skip the flowers altogether you can use food as centerpieces. Red and white checkered tablecloths and homemade apple pies can give your backyard reception tables a “country” appearance, and baskets of fruit can act as both decoration and healthy alternatives to sweet desserts.

Gardens can provide a quaint, romantic setting for outdoor weddings, and many also have adequate space for outdoor receptions. Tables can be set up among gorgeous trees and flowers, and additional floral arrangements are easy outdoor wedding reception centerpiece ideas. Vases of flowers that grew in the garden add charm to the reception, and you can even scatter additional flower petals on each reception table for an extra touch of romance.

Outdoor weddings and receptions may involve a bit of extra work, but coming up with ideas for your wedding reception centerpieces should be a fun process. Save money by creating them yourself, and work together with your fiancé to create special memories together. Be sure to remind your wedding photographer to take a lot of pictures of them!

How to Become a Successful Wedding Planner With Inexpensive Weddings

Can you make a living planning weddings? Yes. As a self-employed professional, you can either charge a set fee for the wedding or a percentage of the total cost. Your income can be uncertain when you first start planning these extravaganzas, but as your reputation spreads and you gain more experience, your income can increase dramatically.

Of course, you will make more income on an elaborate, huge wedding, but several smaller and simple weddings will be less stressful when you are starting out and, when the separate income is added together, you will probably make the same amount of money.

Some agencies who track salaries report yearly incomes in the $50,000 range for wedding planners. One such agency, PayScale, currently reports these average hourly rates for the profession:

* California $28.00

* Georgia $27.50

* Massachusetts $20.64

* New York $15.00

* Louisiana $14.00

* Pennsylvania $10.23

* Texas $9.00

As with any self-employment, your success depends entirely on your creativity, reliability and marketing skills. There are online courses you can take to teach you the skills you need to plan the perfect wedding for your clients. Some of those courses will lead to certification as a Wedding Planner, which will give you more credibility with your clients and improve your professional standing with your colleagues.

Getting Started

What a professional Wedding Planner actually does is take on the details and responsibility of the event, relieving the bride and groom and their families, from the stresses involved. In turn, this allows them to enjoy the preliminary wedding events, like bridal showers and picking a honeymoon location.

There are lots of details you, as a Wedding Planner, need to know to keep things running smoothly and within the budget available. You will have to have a set of resources you can tap into to get the best service at the best prices, like reserving the church or chapel, catering the reception, ordering flowers, getting the wedding dress designed and ordered, selecting invitations and announcements, booking the music and hiring a professional photographer, among many other tasks.

It would probably be very good advice to start your career on small and somewhat inexpensive weddings. Giant extravaganzas can be very complex and time consuming to the most experienced Wedding Planner and you would be well-advised to start smaller and work up.

Some of the following tips should help you get started on planning a smaller wedding that will save money on several of the more expensive features of normal weddings. The bride’s father will love you for it.

The Wedding Gown

* The wedding gown can be expensive enough to break any budget. You can offer your client several options that are affordable and will still make the bride look like an angel as she floats down the aisle.

Renting a gown is becoming more popular every day. Think about it. The bride is going to wear it once and it was probably worn once before she rented it. It also avoids the storage problem for 20 years if the bride will not be saving it for her firstborn child to wear at her own wedding.

* If a member of the bride’s family is a good seamstress, suggest that she ask the family member to make the dress. Providing all the material and even paying the family member for the service will more than likely be less expensive than buying one from a bridal store.

* Another way would be for the bride to wear her mother’s wedding gown, if she saved it. You might want to check it carefully for any deterioration before the bride commits to wearing it. The mother is probably from a generation that thought saving her wedding gown was an obligation of the marriage and believed for several decades that her daughter would wear it at her own wedding.

The Reception

Another budget-buster is the reception, but some planning with a true reality check can reduce your client’s expenditures here.

* Think smaller. Talk to your clients about how they can downsize the guest list. When the excitement of the coming event takes over, your clients and their parents will many times have a very long list of people to invite to the wedding and the reception after.

Many of the parents’ visions of the reception can resemble an extravaganza with hundreds of guests, munching caviar and drinking champagne all night long in a huge ballroom. If their budget will not cover the considerable expenses involved in their dream reception, your skills as the Wedding Planner will be well served here.

To start with, keeping the guest list small and only inviting close family and friends will save money and still provide the dream celebration your clients want. If your client hasn’t had a close relationship with college friends or neighbors from four moves back, don’t put them on the list.

Instead of renting the largest hall or club banquet room in your town for the reception, you have a couple of inexpensive options that might appeal to your clients:

* Check out restaurants in the area. Some have banquet rooms that they will either rent out or provide free if you use their services for the sit-down meal or the buffet.

* Consider suggesting that your clients hold the reception at their home. The party does not have to include a full meal. Catered hors d’oeuvres and a champagne fountain will set the festive mood your clients want.

* Weddings held in gardens or other natural settings are very popular and beautiful. There’s minimal decoration needed and the only expense might be for the minister, rabbi or Justice of the Peace.

* Not having a full bar will save a lot of money, regardless of where the reception is held. The champagne fountain mentioned above can also be combined with beer or wine if the clients want to provide additional libations for their guests.

The Photography

The formal wedding service requires a professional photographer who will create a beautiful album to record the special day and preserve the memories to relive as they wish. If you create a relationship with several photographers as you build your career, you will know which one to hire for your client’s purposes.

The rest of the celebration can be recorded by all their friends and relatives with a digital camera in their pockets. Some clients put disposable cameras on tables for anyone to use. Have a decorated basket nearby and visible to give your guests a place to leave the cameras when they go home.

The Wedding Invitations

Newly engaged couples can go way overboard on their wedding invitations and your task, as their Wedding Planner, is to suggest ways for them to save money on this expensive item.

Those engraved invitations with the ribbon attached or the edges cut into curvy designs are expensive. The same effect can be achieved with a good card stock and one of those edge cutters used for scrapbooking. The necessary items can be found in any good craft store and some stationary stores. They come with matching envelopes, too. The actual text can easily be printed with a good inkjet or laser printer.

One way to make homemade invitations special and very personal is to order stamps from the US Post Office with the couple’s engagement picture on them.

Consider suggesting that your client include making her own thank you notes and, even the place cards, if you are including a sit-down reception for their wedding. Once again, a good laser or inkjet printer can do the fancy fonts and include a picture of the couple to make them personal. The thank you notes would stand out if they were sent with a wedding picture on the stamps.

The Flowers

It is not necessary to buy fancy floral arrangements and pay for the floral designer’s time and expertise. Simple flowers arranged beautifully in clusters or cascades can be created by either the bride’s family or a crafty friend. They can be delivered to the church by you or by friends.

If you are building your business, create some relationships with flower vendors and provide that service to your clients. They will be delighted at the savings and the vendors will love you for the business.

Depending on the time of the year, the flowers can be picked from the bride’s own backyard or from a friend’s yard. A few inexpensive vases, some ribbon and both the wedding and the reception will be beautifully decorated while not breaking the family’s budget.

A few flower arrangements can attractively set off a buffet table or on the tables at a sit-down dinner. Think about several weddings you have attended as a guest. How many flower arrangements do you really remember? During the entire wedding ritual, most of the guests were focused on the bride and groom; weren’t they?

A simple floral bouquet can be easily arranged from flowers out of a garden with the stems wrapped in a ribbon that complements or matches the bride’s gown. When you toss the bridal bouquet before you leave the reception, you will be tossing out a truly personal memento of your wedding and not one that was exorbitantly priced.

Any flowers left over can be scattered in the bride’s hair to make her even more beautiful as she walks down the aisle.

The Wedding Cake

There’s lots of tradition around the wedding cake, including saving a piece to be eaten on the first anniversary of the wedding. The top layer of the cake is normally put aside before the cake is cut and frozen to preserve it. Some bakers have been making a top layer that is a light fruitcake. It freezes well and thaws better a year later.

Wedding cake history can be traced as far back at the Roman Empire and the traditions have gone through so many changes between now and then that there is no comparison.

Today’s “traditional” wedding cake practices can be anything the couple wants them to be. Some have abandoned the white wedding cake and substituted frosting colors and decorations that reflect the bride’s choice of décor or the color of the bridesmaid dresses.

The multi-tiered cake is not an obligation and can be a heavy drain on a limited budget. Friends can make the cake for the reception or something else can replace the cake entirely, like a wedding cake made of frosted cupcakes stacked in layers. The cupcake wedding cake is becoming very popular, not only for economy, but for it’s novelty and the range of cupcake flavors that can be offered.

As the Wedding Planner, you will need to have a list of different and affordable wedding cakes to give the couple choices. If no one in the family or set of friends can make the wedding cake, you will also need a list of economical bakeries.

Lists – How To Plan A Small Wedding

When you first begin to work as a Wedding Planner, you will be buried in details that can only be managed if you know how to make ordered lists. Over time, you will probably create your own templates on your computer and be able to print out a complete set of templates whenever you book a new wedding.

Your templates will be your “spare brain” and will keep you informed of what needs to be done and when, along with favored vendors, the services they provide and what their fees are.

Your templates should include the following information:

* A reasonable timeline for all activities concerning the wedding from start to finish. That should include preliminary details, like scheduling the bride’s appointments for fittings, reserving the banquet room or restaurant for the reception, booking the chapel and anything else that needs advance scheduling.

Waiting too long may require rescheduling that might interfere with the travel arrangements made by the out-of-town guests or make finding a caterer difficult, to name only a couple of serious possible problems.

* After your templates are printed and initially filled out, you need to make a preliminary wedding budget and include the fees for your services. As the director of this event, you will be spending the money and have a responsibility to provide records when requested.

* The actual wedding ceremony should be painstakingly detailed to ensure that all aspects are taken care of in advance. Leave nothing to the last minute.

o Have the bride and groom choose their wedding date as soon as possible. Everything needed to be in place for that date has to be scheduled and confirmed before any other plan can be completed.

o Decide upon the wedding site, church, chapel, garden, park, etc. Make that decision specific. Get the details of the church or chapel, the address of the garden and the phone number of the relative or friend who owns it or permission of the agency controlling the park.

o Book and confirm the minister, rabbi or Justice of the Peace who will be performing the wedding ceremony.

o Start selecting the music with the couple for the actual ceremony. Include the music for the reception and book who will be providing it…disk jockey, small band, etc.

o Send the couple to get the marriage license. For their book of memories, see if a friend or family member will take a few photos of this necessity.

One thing you might consider is using your own digital camera and recording most of the less dramatic events of preparing for the wedding, like getting the marriage certificate, making or addressing the invitations, trying on wedding dresses.

A CD or DVD given to the couple after they return from their honeymoon will serve two important purposes.

1. They will have something to remember all that went into the ceremony that will not be included in the normal wedding album.

2. When they share the CD or DVD with their friends, some of whom might be contemplating their own wedding, your name and contact details will be prominent.

Referrals are what will build your business. Subliminal ads, like on the CD or DVD label and at the beginning and end of the photos might bring you some business. At the very least, your unexpected gift after the excitement that goes with any wedding, will be remembered by the bride and groom.

The wedding ceremony rehearsal needs to be scheduled as soon as possible. It normally takes place a night or two before the actual ceremony (after work) and can be easily forgotten in the rush of last minute details. Additionally, the church or chapel might be previously booked by another wedding party.

Some have a small dinner party in a restaurant after the rehearsal. If your couple is planning one with their bridesmaids and groomsmen, make the reservations as soon as possible and confirm a few days before the rehearsal.

Make sure that everyone knows who will be in the wedding processional and the recessional and what to do. Practice it with the actual music, if possible, so it looks graceful during the actual event. Never forget that you are creating life-long memories for the couple.

The wedding reception has its own set of details to schedule and set in motion.

1. You need to determine the time of day for the reception. Be sure to allow enough time for the photographer to take the album photos after the ceremony and for the newly married couple to travel from the church to the reception.

2. Make sure the place for the reception is set up, decorated and stocked. It would be a wise decision to check with the restaurant or hall about a week before the wedding to check details and to discuss any changes in the menu or times with the manager. A phone call the day before the event wouldn’t be a bad idea.

3. Normal wedding reception activities need to be scheduled and coordinated so they feel like a natural progression before the couple leaves the reception.

Those activities can include the receiving line, the first dance, cake cutting, tossing the bouquet, speeches and toasting from the best man, parents or friends.

How To Find A Job In The Wedding Industry

There’s over a dozen different industries that might be interested in hiring Wedding Planners or consultants, if you were interested in working with companies.

Resorts in popular vacation spots are becoming sites for destination weddings and would have the need for a Wedding Planner. This would be a way to work and enjoy all the amenities available in some of the world’s most beautiful spots.

Hotels almost anywhere, even in your current location, are always sites for weddings or receptions in their banquet rooms and many might need a Wedding Planner or Event Coordinator to keep their wedding parties from becoming a disaster.

Churches and synagogues might be on the lookout for someone to handle the weddings being scheduled at their churches and temples. Distributing a well-designed flyer at each facility might get you referrals, if not an actual job. Make sure to include some business cards with the flyers.

Finally, do not forget to leave your business cards with local bridal shops, caterers and florists. These businesses handle some aspect of the wedding preparations every day. They would be good reciprocal referrals for your services. If you, in return, used their services in the wedding planning, it would be a Win-Win situation for all involved.

You should have enough information to decide if being a Wedding Planner is the career for you. You can find eCourses to take online and several step-by-step eBooks or manuals that explain everything you need to know and even provide templates to help you organize the details.

Engaged Brides and Grooms’ Road From a Wedding Dream to Planning and Having a Dream Wedding

The road from your wedding dream to your dream wedding is often paved with uncertainty and lots of apprehension, anxiety and stress. As newly engaged bride and groom, you are suddenly faced with having to make many decisions and probably, don’t know where to start and what to do. So, what should be your most exciting and fun time, could become a burden.

In previous generations, wedding planning was left for the bride with or without her parents. In fact it was customary that the bride’s parents would plan and pay for the wedding

Today, most engaged couples prefer to plan their wedding and pay for it too. That is, today’s grooms do not like the idea of being a guest at their own wedding. Rather, they want to be actively involved in all aspects of the wedding planning and preparation with the obvious exception of the bridal gown and bridesmaids dresses. Therefore, brides and grooms discuss, share opinions, check their budget and decide what they expect their wedding dream to be like.

I wish you a fun, stress free and memory building engagement. Hopefully, this article, tips and suggestions, will provide you with a road map so you will not get lost.

Suggested Wedding Planning Steps to Consider Starting with Your Engagement Decisions:

The Appropriate Order for Announcing The Engagement. In other words who to tell first, second etc…

How to announce the engagement to everyone else.

Pre-Wedding Parties Organizing Tips.

Whoever plans your engagement party should do the inviting.

If you have chosen your wedding date send out save the date announcements.

Before your wedding you will probably have a shower in your honor. Usually the shower is not a surprise party. You need to decide whether it should be a Bridal Shower, a Groom Shower, or a Wedding Shower. That is a wedding shower for both bride and groom.

Setting Your Wedding Budget, Tips and Ideas

This could be the most stressing part of your wedding planning. You need to set up a wedding account and get a “wedding” credit card. Having both, you need to figure out:

Who pays for what? Remember to include any family participation.

Do you want a local wedding or a destination wedding followed by a honeymoon?

Prepare a wedding budget by category after you finish reading this article.

Traditional Roles And Wedding Responsibilities

You must consider who to appoint for various tasks. Before you do so, you must define the Duties of the:

Bride And Groom,

Bride,

Groom,

Maid Or Matron Of Honor,

Best Man,

Bridesmaids,

Groomsmen,

Ushers,

Flower Girl or Boy and their parents,

Ring Bearer and his or her parents,

Guest Book Table Attendant,

Mother of the Bride, Mother of the Groom or both,

Father of the Bride, Father of the Groom Or Both.

Have you considered having a theme wedding?

Having a theme wedding and choosing wedding colors are very popular. A well thought of wedding theme can save you money.

You need information about:

the 13 Phases of Wedding Planning – Timeline Schedule, Wedding Planning, To-Do And Checklists. Also, you must have a wedding planning – appointment and events calendars, and if possible, you should attend bridal shows.

Wedding Guests -Tips And Ideas

If you do not have the appropriate guest wotksheets and checklists, compile the information you need for the following items you may be lost without it..

About out of town guests – who, how many, preferences, arrival date, accommodations, transportation etc.

Notes and etiquette for guests such as proper attire – black tie formal, garden reception semi casual, barbque casual etc.

Guest Lists – You may need to trim the number of guests to fit your budget.

Invitations sent and replies received. You will need this information for set-up, for catering and for cake serving.

Guest accommodations and transportation – hosted by friends and family, staying at a hotel, transportation from the airport to their lodging destination, transportation to and from your wedding events etc.

Guest table decorations, favors and seating assignments. I personally like guests to sit where they want. Less possible conflicts and no seating cards needed. But this is my preference.

Individual guest cards are needed only if you have assigned seating.

Reception seating arrangements and seating chart – Basically how many guest tables do you need and where and how to place them.

Invitations And Wedding Stationery

To save money, word and print your own wedding invitaions and stationery.

Bridal Gown And Wedding Attire

Before you look for it, you need to decide about the formality of the wedding attire for your attendants and who should pay for it. It is quite common today for the attendants to pay for their own attire. But, be sensitive to an attendant who cannot afford the expense.

Do research to find the perfect gown for the bride and dresses for the ladies – before you purchase or rent. You also need to decide whether you or your ladies should pay for their dresses.

You may consider to gift your ladies with jewelry to complement their outfits.

Things to take into concideration before you chose your wedding gown or dress

Your bridal attire budget – wedding gowns are priced from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred dollars or possibly less.
Will you get your attire in a brick and mortar dress shop, a salon, a dressmaker, on the Internet, look for private sellers?
Shopping on the Internet will save you a lot of money because the sellers do not have the operating expenses stores have. So they pass the savings on to you. However, to purchase on line you need to provide the seller with accurate measurements or dress size.
For the men: You need to decide if they should wear their own suites and button down shirts or tuxedos. When it comes to tuxedos, they are usually rented. Here too the question is: “who should pay the rental fees.”
Like the ladies, the men wear jewelry such as cufflings and tie clips. Since you probably intend to gift your attendeds, gifting them with jewelry is very appropriate.

Destination Wedding and Honeymoon

Destination Weddings are very popular. The main reason is that they leave the attendees with a lifetime of memories.

With the escelating costs of tradional weddings, many brides and grooms choose to combine their wedding and honymoon. Basically they invite only their families and very close friends. So, instead of feeding many peple, some of whom, such as coworkers of their parents, the bride and groom are not even familiar with, they prefer to provide their loved ones with a memorable exprience.

Planning a Destination Wedding is very different from planning a traditional wedding. Once you decide on the location, you may need to hire a wedding planner who knows what is available in their area. However, if you have friends or family in that vicinity, they may be able to coordnate your wedding to your specificatons.

Case in point; My granddaughter who lives in Texas, is planning to get married near Rochester, NY in July. Her future in-laws live there. So, she and her groom provided his parents with instructons, and trust them to plan and execute the wedding. I can’t wait to fly to NY for the wedding.

If you plan a Destination Wedding – Honeymoon, be sure to draw yourselves one packing list for the bride and her needs and one for the room and his needs. Make sure to include your driver’s and marriage licenses, cash and credit cards.

You have to prepare to work with Wedding Vendors, Professionals And Service Providers

To choose the wedding vendors, professionals and service providers who are right for you, you will need to interview them. Don’t be shy! Negitiate with them. They want your business. Before you choose, be sure to interview at least 3. For example: Interview at lease 3 florists. Ask to see samples of their wedding arranements and choose the one that impressed you most with both their work and the price that is most compatible with your budget. When you interview bakers, make sure to not only see samples of their wedding creations but taste a few of their goodies. When it comes to photographers, depend on their work. Photographers are not vendors to save money on. You want the very best! this is the only vendor that will create your wedding memories, to enjoy and pass on to your children and theirs. Be very choosy!

Create Your Wedding Day Schedule!

By the clock. Hour by hour.

By activities both at the ceremony and at the reception.

Ceremony

as a ceremony site you may choose either your place of worship or the location where your reception will be held.

Choose and appoint your officiant to preside over your marriage ceremony. Some officiants may quote you a fee for their service. Others especially within your place of worship require no fee, but expect an honorarium.

You may want to personalize your wedding ceremony with flower arrangements, and family traditions. Add your own touch such as tying a knot, lighting a unity candle, the wine ceremony where white wine and red wine are combined, representing the souls of the bride and groom uniting as they have become soul mates. How about inviting the mothers and giving each a rose?

The order of a Christian ceremony processions is different than a Jewish one. Both are different than a Moslem one. Indian and Oriental are still different. And so on.

You also need to:

Pick and choose the music you want for the ceremony,
Readings you want recited,
Pew seating arrangements for the family. Usually the front row of the sanctuary.
Reception Venue

Your wedding reception does not have to take place in a wedding hall or hotel ballroom that are very expensive. Instead, you can get creative have fun and save a lot of money.

You may choose to have a beach wedding, a garden wedding, a wedding at a historical site, an apartment complex club house etc.

Once you secure the wedding reception location, it is time to plan the reception and figure out your costs. Note: The recepion is the most expensive part of the wedding but, you can control the costs.

Your saving depend on the location and the vendors, professionals and service providers. Keep reading and you may get some option ideas.

Reception Rentals

Most wedding halls provide you with all your reception needs. However, if you choose an alternative wedding reception site you may need to rent chairs, tables, and unless you provide them, table cloths, napkins, dishes, cups, flatware etc. you’ll need to rent them too. If you hold your reception in a garden, on the beach, have a barbeque reception etc. using paper products is acceptable. In fact it makes clean-up easy. But, you may still need to rent furniture. Finding the right rental company depends on their price and whether they deliver, set-up and pick-up.

Bakery

Every wedding must have baked goods, the most important of course is the wedding cake. Yet there is a way for you to save money.

Don’t be shy! Ask wedding invitees to help and participate in your wedding. Find out if there are any bakers and ask them to bake goodies for your wedding. You may even find bakers who will be able to create your wedding cake. Most will feel honored to be asked and you will save money.

Finding the right bakery is quite easy especially if you have been to a wedding recently. Ask for word of mouth recommendations. visit and interview at least 3 bakeries.

See their work,
taste their baked goods,
find out if they charge for cutting and serving cake to your guests,
negotiate the prices,
calculate additional costs,
select the bakery you want to hire for your wedding.
Once hired, you will need to provide the bakery with the approximate number of servings.
Catering

When it comes to catering, you have lots of options. Some depends on your wedding style, the number of guests, and the time of day your wedding takes place. morning or early afternoon wedding – (lunch can be a catered sit down, light buffet, salads and cold cut sandwiches, finger foods ), afternoon wedding – (light buffet, salads and cold cut sandwiches, barbeque, finger foods or tea time and deserts) evening wedding can be casual (serving a buffet) or formal (serving a catered sit down dinner with a few courses).

If you plan on a catered meal, whether a sit down or a buffet, choose the caterers carefully.

Make sure that they have a license and are top graded.
Ask to see their food presentation. You must be impressed to impress your guests.
Request a menu that you can select from.
Taste, taste and taste some more.
Be sure that the food meets youe expectations.
Compare the presentarion, the food choices and the pricing of at least 3 caterers before you hire.
Your reception food setting

You can:

Have a catered and served sit down lunch or dinner,
Provide your guests with a catered self serve buffet,
Serve a buffet with food items you or your family and friends provide. Here you can be creative.
treat your guests to a tea-time and desert party reception, a barbeque or even a picnic, etc.
The FREE, personalized and printable wedding planning guide you should download from our magazine, offers you ideas for Self Catered Buffet. It includes items and quantities needed for 50 or 100 guests.
You must also decide if you will serve alcoholic as well as non-alcoholic drinks. If you plan to serve alcoholic drinks other than the toasting champagne:

Will you place a bottle of wine on each table?
Will you hire bar tenders to serve your guests?
Will it be an open bar where guests pay for their own drinks? (This is quite common.)
Will the bar tenders charge you a ‘corking fee’?
Florist

Flower selections offer you many options.

You can choose:

fresh flowers,
silk flower,
seasonal flowers,
flowers to match your wedding colors,
locally grown flowers,
imported flowers,
to have flowers purchased in a store,
to order fresh flower arrangements from stores like Costco or Sam’s Club
to have stores like Michaels or Hobby Lobby create your arrangements from silk flowers
Order your flower arrangements from a wedding florist.
Note:
A wedding florist will set-up your flower arrangements in your ceremony site and at your reception.

Stores will not. When you order flower arrangements at a store they will have the flowers avaiable for pick-up. You or someone you designate will have to pick the flowers up, deliver them and set them up at both the ceremony and the reception sites.

Yoy will need to provide the florist or your designee with information about delivery and set-up at the ceremony and reception Locations.

Music And Entertainment

Music and entertainment are the soul of a wedding celebration. However you have options.

You can choose:

live performance, (live band, live singers, live entertaunment) etc.
a DJ – Master of Ceremonies,
pre-recorded music, or music right out of your computer. – You will need to set up good speakers.)
classical selections,
dance music
Songs of specific era ( the 20s, the50s, the 60s etc.)
Photographer

When it comes to a photographer, choose the very best! Do not hire a photographer based on price! Hire the photographer whose work quality is more than superb. The same goes for the videographer. Your wedding pictures will become a family heirloom. They will be handed down to your children and theirs and will tell the history of your family to up-coming generations.

Transportation

It is most important that you arrange for transportation. The transportation company must be super reliable!!! You don’t want anyone stranded!

You need them to:

transport out of town guests from the air port to their hotel or other lodging facility.
you will have to arrange guests’ transportation from the hotel to the ceremony and to the reception and back to their hotel or other lodging facility.
You will need special transportation for the bride and groom too.
You will need to provid a transportation providers with all the details: Service date(s) event(s) number of guests, pick-up locations, times, etc.
Our Wedding Rings

Budget for your wedding rings and selct them accordingly.wll they be gold, platinum, another metal, with or without diamonds, what shape diamonds?

Don’t forget to budget for:

Wedding Favors for your tables
Gifts for your family members and wedding party.
Tips for your vendors
Taxes if applicable
Permission to re-print

Are you looking for content?

If you would like to add contents to your site, newsletter, or publication, we grant you permission to post this article and forward it to your friends too.

However,You must:

keep each articles AS IS with no additions or deletions.
When you post or otherwise publish this article, please ensure that:
it links to our website at http://www.a-weddingday.com
Include all copyrights information,
Post the entire author by-line, with all active hyperlinks included.
be sure to have your reprinted article actively hyperlinks to our site and to any links within the article.

How to Distinguish The Low Quality Wedding Dresses

The wedding dress for every bride is the most important things all in life, every bride wearing a wedding dresses was paid attention. But the quality of the wedding dress is uneven now, many brides do not know how to choose the wedding dress. Now There are 5 tips for brides to learn to identify the quality of the wedding dress!

1.Fabric
When choosing bridal gown, the brides always pay
close attention to the detail of bridal dress. But the fabric and style of the wedding gown of her own also should be understood by brides. Actually, Fabric is the most important factor that reflects the quality of wedding gown. At present, most of the wedding dresses are consist of satin, chiffon, yarn and taffeta. Stain:Satin fabric is characterized by its softness, smoothness, and richness. Chiffon: the features of the bridal dress of are light, soft, transparent, elegant, comfortable and draping. It is one of the ideal fabrics for the bridal gown in spring and summer. Yarn: Yarn fabrics can be used as main fabrics, it can also be used as accessories in local. Taffeta: Taffeta is also a kind of silk. It is a very powerful fabric. It is flat, tight, and a unique gloss. There is a simple way to distinguish the taffeta-Sound.

2.The composition
Wedding dress is not only a surface layer. There are three layers of cloth, including cloth, linings and face, so that it can show the effect of wedding dress. In order to set off the overall shape of the dress, many gown will support lining and interlining, so wedding dress will be thick. Moreover, the number of layers is even more important for gauze gown. If the fabric and the number of layers of the bridal gown more enough, the problem of thin or skirt tracks will not appear.

3.The fishbone
The ball gown also have fish bone as other skinny dresses. The cheap wedding gowns are soft and can not play the role of self cultivation. The high-grade bridal gown fish bones have a good contrast to the chest shape, not only makes people more straight, even ensures the overall effect of the perfect.

4.The pads
The pads of the bridal gown includes built-in and external cushion. Cheap dress is absolutely outside, and easy to move. Luxury wedding pad is also a very good decoration chest effect and full not easy to slide, even natural placement is very three-dimensional.

5.The details
Details are another major element that reflects the quality of bridal gown. Different stitching methods required different technical force and manpower. The low-grade wedding dresses are all sewn together with the material and material. It looks very cheap, while the middle and high grade are both the material and the fabric seam, that is, the edge is hidden inside and the outer surface is very clean. Handmade flowers: inexpensive bridal gown, most machines embroidered, but the stitches are not firm. Luxury bridal gown will use a lot of handwork, unique pattern, some skilled workers can only finish one or two pieces a day, complex points can be completed in a few days, so the cost is high.

How to Choose the Perfect Florist For Your Wedding

Weddings have a lot of details around them and, because of that, it’s likely that you feel overwhelmed by the choices that you need to make. In many instances, you’ll want to go step-by-step to make sure that every area of need is sorted out properly.

So, what if you need wedding flowers in Noosa? How can you be sure to find the right options? And how do you hire a wedding florist that is going to do it right? Here are some of the things to look for.

Ask Friends and Family

Do you have friends and family that have recently tied the knot? If you liked their flower arrangements, then you may want to ask them who they used. That will give you a fairly solid place to start your search for wedding flowers in Noosa that you’ll love.

Look at Past Work

Once you figure out which wedding florists are in your local area, you need to be sure that you look around at the past work that they’ve done. Look at Facebook and Instagram and see if they’ve been tagged in any photos.

Many times, their past work gives you a good idea of their creative direction, which can help you with a lot of the choices that you are trying to work through. You can also see the quality of work they do, and see if it’s up to standards that you have in mind.

Find Someone Who Matches Your Aesthetic

Everyone has a different idea of what their wedding looks like and what sort of “feel” that they want it to have. And every florist is going to have a different path that they take when they’re going through their creative process.

As you look through their pictures, which we suggested above, you want to see if that style matches what you want your wedding to look like. If it seems like it’s too far off of the mark, but you like how they look, you may want to chat anyway (and see if they have multiple styles they use in their arranging).

Compare Costs to Your Budget

Lastly, you want to be sure that you look at the wedding flowers in Noosa that you want and make sure that your ideas and the florists’ execution match your budget. Flowers can easily be a large part of your wedding budget, so you need to be reasonable when you put together your final budget for them. Popular wedding florists often have a minimum spend, so before contacting your chosen florist check that your budget expectations exceed their minimum investment.

There are a lot of traits associated with a wedding florist, so you want to do your research and be sure that you have the resources you need from them. Look into the options you have and be sure that you’re going to be happy with the results. In the long run, things will go much more smoothly for you.

How to Plan a Wedding Budget: Useful Tips for a Great Wedding

Plan a grand wedding with the aid of wedding budget plannerAll the brides want to have grand and lavish weddings unless it is one of those runaway brides. One of the most essential tasks that make a wedding majestic and successful is planning. You should try and lay your hands on wedding planning books so that you know all about the ideas to host the gala celebration.However, planning a wedding is not at all easy especially if you are a working professional. There is so much to be done and if you have little time then you should work smart. Hiring the services of wedding budget planner will help you sail smoothly through the entire process.Wedding is once in a lifetime event and all the near and dear ones are busy celebrating and busy in various tasks you should search the internet and learn about wedding budget planner in your city so that you can surprise the guests by throwing a regal and magnificent wedding party. One of the best ways to enjoy the wedding is to ensure that wedding budget planner shoulders all the responsibility. You must ask your married friends and cousins for references so that you waste no time in hiring the right talent.Right from selecting the invitation card to decorating the venue and hiring the apt caterer is done by a wedding budget planner. But, if you have decided to be the taskmaster then you should have a comprehensive knowledge about planning weddings. This can be attained by reading various wedding planning books. This is a time consuming task so if you have lots of time then you can actually plan and host your wedding in a grand manner. You should take notes and write down all the innovative ideas and then if the budget permits you should implement it while planning your impressive wedding.Weddings are extremely happy and memorable occasions for the bride and the groom. If the family is incessantly involved in making the wedding a grand success then they end up missing a lot of fun. So, if you want your friends and family to enjoy your wedding you should delegate all the tasks to be done to a responsible and reputable wedding budget planner. Since, they know the right florist, caterers, and decorators and so on why you should be stressed in planning your wedding. You should sit back and enjoy the fun. You must ensure that people are comfortable and have a great time so that your wedding is a striking success and the talk of the town.

Recommendations in Choosing Unique Wedding Favors

There are lots of individuals who get hitched daily. Due to the solemnity of a wedding ceremony, it is extremely important to make it as wonderful as possible. It is also an event that does not happen oftentimes in a person’s life. In reality, it only occurs once most of the time. Nonetheless, there are some couples that split up and end up marrying again. Wedding coordinators have a very important job, and it is not an easy one. In fact, it is hard to plan for a wedding celebration.Nevertheless, if you work hard and take some time, it can be very easy to make a wedding event successful without seeking the assistance of a professional. One concern is the wedding items required in every single wedding occasion. Couples have to be ready with wedding mementos for all the attendees. Unique wedding favors help make a wedding occasion much more special.There are so many items that are needed in every wedding ceremony. Wedding mementos or giveaways are a must. Without these things, the attendees will not have any memento that they can bring home right after the wedding ceremony. It allows the guests to remember a really special day the moment that they see the memento. In addition, it is essential that the couple buy enough wedding giveaways for all the guests. The costs of the favors vary from affordable to costly. The big selection permits future brides and grooms to find the appropriate favor that meets their budget.Despite the fact that these things are generally small in size, it does not imply that a person must not spend ample time in looking for the perfect favor for a wedding event. There are a couple of things to take into account when selecting among unique wedding favors:First, it is advisable to select a giveaway that talks about the character of the wedding couple. For example, a couple that likes wines could go with wine glasses or wine stoppers.
Second, the concept of the wedding needs to be put into consideration. Beach favors are for beach wedding ceremonies.
Third, the giveaways must also be based on the motif of the wedding. Although this is not a necessity all the time, it would help to find favors that match the color that is dominantly utilized in the special event. If this is tough to accomplish, a wedding couple can just attach a ribbon or a card that has exactly the same color as the motif.Once a couple is in the stage of picking their wedding giveaways, it is also strongly suggested that they ask for each other’s input.The market provides so many wedding giveaways that couples oftentimes have a challenging time picking among them. Any individual who has this problem can resolve it by picking unique wedding favors and by following the tips above. It guarantees the bride and groom that the guests will not be given a similar giveaway from another wedding. In addition, it ensures them that they are giving a souvenir that does not just talk about the whole wedding celebration, but also about their individual personalities.